Miami Beach Urban Studios Welcome 2014 Neighbor Party

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Miami Beach Urban Studios’ Welcome to 2014 Neighbor Party! As a way of re-introducing the location to all of the other business in the 420 building on Lincoln Road, MBUS hosted a casual, after-work meet-and-greet. The party was a mix of professionals, tenants, graduate students who had finished their classes, and Miami Beach friends who sipped on wine, nibbled on cheeses and fruit, and got to know their neighbors!

Halfway through the party, the winners of the 2014 Spring Design Charrette were announced by Jason Chandler, Chair of the Department of Architecture. The 2014 Spring Design Charrette is part of a collaboration with the Wolfsonian-FIU called “Power of Design 2014: Complaints,” which focuses on Why do we complain? Our take? There’s method, purpose, and meaning to complaints. We complain, and then what? We can sit back and complain some more, or we can lean forward into problem solving. Choose the latter approach and complaints can lead to innovations and even solutions. Design itself, a problem-solving process, often originates with complaint. For more on Power of Design, please visit here.

The competition grouped teams of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Landscape Architecture student to design a signature space on Lincoln Road. The goal of the assignment was to create a unique and innovative environment where the myriad of cultures and types of people who frequent Lincoln Road could rest and regroup.

As the party wound down, the evening continued with a concert by the internationally renowned FIU Amernet String Quartet, who played a program of Mozart, Shapiro and Brahms to a packed house, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. More on the concert here.

Congratulations to the extraordinarily talented winners!

Thank you again for all who turned out to the event – MBUS will be hosting far more meet and greets, happy hours, and socials in the future – stay tuned!

The winners of the 2014 Spring Design Charrette competition were:

First Place: THE AMOEBA / Tactile Installation at Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue